T6 Texan Down Punta Gorda

[iflyvfr]

My Network Admin just came in my office to show off her shiny new Microsoft Surface. . .and pulled up her Dad's FB page. On it he had photos of the airplane he had just ridden as a pax to a dead stick landing in a cow pasture over the weekend.

She only found out about it on FB but is headed for a visit to PG tomorrow on spring break. From his description on his page it was a T6 Texan, other sites call it a SNJ5 Navy Trainer. The plane started smoking, losing oil & predictably the engine quit shortly after that . Whomever the pilot was talking to at the time allegedly advised him to lower the gear, but he opted for a GU landing citing the terrain, the fact they had smoke in the cockpit, etc. From the photos on his FB page, plane was damaged but pilot made a good decision based on the outcome.

http://www.aviationinspector.com/2017/04/snj5-navy-trainer-lost-power-unable-make-runway/

Here's a little bit of audio:
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/35048729/plane-crashes-near-punta-gorda-airport

Not much press of the incident, probably because no one was killed (fortunately!) The one short article about it mentioned no cows were injured.

 

[Acrodustertoo]

Glad everyone made it out okay and that no prime rib was harmed. They are tough old planes though, should be back before you know it.

 

[Fearless Tower]

From his description on his page it was a T6 Texan, other sites call it a SNJ5 Navy Trainer.

The AT-6D and SNJ-5 are really the same airplane. Just a different data plate. What confuses people even more is that many SNJs today are flying around in Army colors and vice versa.

 

[Acrodustertoo]

The AT-6D and SNJ-5 are really the same airplane. Just a different data plate. What confuses people even more is that many SNJs today are flying around in Army colors and vice versa.

I was always under the impression(opinion) that most of them(the large majority) were built for the Navy?

 

[Fearless Tower]

I was always under the impression(opinion) that most of them(the large majority) were built for the Navy?

According to wiki, they built 4388 AT-6Ds (most produced model), 1573 of those went to the Navy as SNJ-5s.

It is interesting though, because (for whatever reason) it does seem like there are a lot more SNJ-5s still flying (and listed on the various sale sites) than AT-6Ds.